SUNDAY: The Indians have officially declined Crisp’s option.
FRIDAY: The Indians have informed outfielder Coco Crisp that they will be declining his $13MM option for the 2017 season, tweets Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He’ll instead receive a $750K buyout and hit the open market in search of a new contract this winter.
Crisp, who turned 37 three days ago, returned to the Indians in an August trade with the Athletics. While he struggled for Cleveland in a reserve capacity down the stretch, Crisp did deliver a pair of important postseason home runs for the Tribe. Overall on the regular season, the switch-hitter recorded a .231/.302/.397 slash line that’s a bit better than it would appear on the surface due to the fact that so many of his at-bats came in Oakland’s cavernous Coliseum. Nonetheless, that line did check in below the league average, as did his defensive ratings in center field (though his left field work still received solid reviews from Defensive Runs Saved).
It’s worth noting that Crisp, though, did still tally 13 homers and 10 stolen bases, thereby demonstrating that he still has the blend of pop and speed that have made him such a solid contributor over the course of his 15-year Major League career. He also fared considerably better as a left-handed hitter than he did as a right-handed bat, so it certainly seems that he could still contribute to a big league club in the corner outfield in a part-time capacity at the very least.
Would love to see him resign with Cleveland and finish his career here he was clutch for us in September and the playoffs
Almonte will fill the role Crisp played next season, no need to bring him back.
I would too, but not at that price tag.
Brantley, Naquin, Chisenhall, Almonte, Guyer…plus they want to bring Davis back. There’s just no room on the roster for him.
That list is an argument to keep Crisp, right? Who knows who Brantley is anymore. Shoulders are tricky. Naquin was terrible at the end of last season and his defense just isn’t good. Chisenhall had a bad year. Guyer’s a platoon player and Almonte is a 4th outfielder.
His defensive numbers have declined due to age, and because he only has a limited number of marquee catch attempts left before his neck issues force him to retire. Fixing his neck will require c-spine fusion and end his career.
He’s been saving extra effort catches for high-leverage moments, and has been batting much less from the right side to not aggravate the nerve impingement. Could he still have an okay season in left field and only batting left-handed? Probably, but he’s not what he used to be, and not worth the option cost.
Thanks for the analysis, Chad. I haven’t been following Crisp closely enough to know the ins and outs of his c-spine issues and related nerve impingement. Will be sorry to see him go.
You can fix your neck with Egoscue. I had a herniated disc in my neck with pain radiating down my left arm along with numbness. I couldn’t even press 10 pounds over my head for one set of 10. One week later, I was doing over 40 pounds with no pain or numbness.
Fusing disc is ridiculous and not needed. Crisp’s body is out of position and not aligned correctly. Muscles move bones. You don’t just have issues due to old issue. It is compensated movement to the point where he is not functioning correctly.
The worst thing you can ever do is restrict your body even more with some surgery that limits your mobility.
Tigers just traded Maybin. Coco would cost less than $9M and stay on the field…..the in-house candidates are iffy
Thanks, Coco for the help this post-season! I hope you have good luck finding another team.
FWIW, he was 2nd in baseball with RISP with a .397 BA
So that means he really sucked when people weren’t in scoring position because that’s a pretty big difference in stats.
Yeah he batted like .190/.260/300 with bases empty
I thought it was 1st overall in the majors with that average
I would love to understand how Crisp has positive defensive numbers in LF when I watched him on multiple occasions misplay basic hits to the OF and his arm is one of the weakest out there. Even if he’s coming in on a single to LF his throws home still bounce two or three times before the catcher scoops it up off the grass.
Almost entirely due to speed – he gets to more balls than most left fielders, especially because most teams play slugs out in left. But yeah, when he and Davis were out there at the same time in the WS it was pretty obvious the Cubs could take the extra base at will.
Bench role with the Giants?
Coco will definitely find himself a new team, I’m thinking a 2 year deal / 15M$
Take away about 10 million I’m thinking